Grading Capitals defense against Hurricanes

The Washington Capitals got a 2-1 win last night over the Carolina Hurricanes in the shootout. Evgeny Kuznetsov had the shootout goal while Darcy Kuemper made 28 saves. But what about the defense?

Martin Fehervary scored his first goal of the season. He won the game’s first star of the game. Dylan Strome made an athletic play getting the puck to Tom Wilson who found Fehervary cutting through the middle.

Fehervary skated on the top pair with John Carlson. On the second pair was Rasmus Sandin and former Hurricane Trevor van Riemsdyk. On the third pair was Joel Edmundson and Nick Jensen.

Wilson talked about his set up for Fehervary’s goal:

"“Sometimes it’s the option off the puck that’s the play, and ‘Marty’ kind of gave me no choice but to hit him in stride, and (he) made a great shot. Structurally, we’re playing well. It’s not always about winning 6-5 and 7-4. We’re playing good, we feel good about our game. The goals will come. The ‘D’ did a good job tonight."

Fehervary added:

"“I saw an opportunity to join the rush. I was open. I don’t know if I yelled or he saw me. I got the puck and then I saw they were cutting off to [Alex Ovechkin]. I’m not surprised, so I just shot it and it went in.”"

Grade A: The defense played outstanding and one of their blue liners provided the only goal for the Capitals in regulation and overtime. What also made the defense really good was that their penalty kill stopped all five Hurricanes power plays.

The Caps spent 10 minutes into the penalty box including four minutes at the beginning of the game and the Caps defense and Kuemper did not let anything get past them.

I think this was an excellent effort by an improved Caps defense that is starting to see their potential.